A blog dedicated to finding all the amazing nuances from over 60+ years of professional basketball

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The List of Greatness - 1983

I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend. Well, all my American readers anyway. I dunno how stuff works in other countries. I assume you had a regular weekend. Which I hope you had a good one of anyway. I did absolutely nothing productive with my three days off, this was as much as I got done, so enjoy it, folks.

Gilmore gets a little bit lucky this year and just narrowly edges out Bird for 1983's slot on the List. I say lucky, not because he doesn't deserve it (he certainly does), but because with the guys that are starting to rack up the points, this was probably his last chance to make it. This is also our third inductee in a row that spent time in the ABA, and fifth overall. (And unless Dan Issel finishes really strongly, probably our final overall, too. I can't see any other ABAers making it up the List far enough to be inducted.)

Well, it's looking like Archibald will be forever left with Cliff Hagan as a "Top 2" on the Supplementary List - meaning he finished second in two or more seasons while never finishing first. Not a bad list to be on by any means, but not quite the same as having your own year. (Extra disappointing for me... as he's pretty much my home state of Nebraska's only chance of having a representative on the List of Greatness. Not that Archibald is from Nebraska, but he played for the short-lived Kansas City-Omaha Kings, which was the state's only professional sports team. Ever. Even if it was shared, I'll take what I can get.)

I find it somewhat strange that Lanier never made an All-NBA 1st or 2nd Team, especially when you consider that he ended his career with 117.1 Win Shares. That's pretty impressive. (42nd all-time, to be exact. And of the 41 players above him, only four others share that distinction: Reggie Miller, Walt Bellamy, Horace Grant, and Chet Walker.) Lanier's best year was probably 1974, where he had 14.4 Win Shares, had a 23.9 PER, averaged 22.5 points per game, 13.3 rebounds per game, 4.2 assists per game, 3.0 blocks per game, and 1.4 steals per game. He did all this while leading the Pistons to a 52-30 record (fourth best in the league) before getting beat in seven games in the first round of the playoffs by the Chicago Bulls. He finished third in the MVP voting that year - behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bob McAdoo. Anyone care to guess who were the centers on the All-NBA 1st and 2nd Teams that year? ... Yes! You're right! Kareem and McAdoo!

Anyway, what can we learn from all this? Well, maybe nothing, other than that the basketball gods can be cruel. They allowed Lanier to have his best year the same year they allowed two other centers to have great years. I mean, Kareem and McAdoo clearly both had better seasons than Lanier that year, so it's not like he got screwed or anything. What I take away from it though, is that sometimes even your best isn't going to be quite as good as the other guy's best. Those are the times you just shake your opponent's hand and say, "well done, sir." That, my friends, is essentially what sports are all about.

(Side Note: Lenny Wilkens finished 14th this year, which puts him on the Supplementary List for being his 14th year in the Top 14.)